Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Trauma

Well, there's nothing like a nice long weekend to rejuvenate you. Or so they say. In reality, my first day back at school has been exhausting. As such, I'm not going to write a big long post for tonight.

Still, let's talk about severed limbs.

Specifically, I want to talk about what happened in Cry for Justice. The now infamous "severing of Roy Harper's arm." It was a pretty graphic scene. I'm not sure it was entirely necessary and I don't know if the character direction they've decided to go with is the right one.

What I do know is that far too many people are simplifying the matter. I heard grousing about how it wasn't a big deal as he was once on a team with a guy who had multiple cybernetic limbs. Seeing as he was going to get a new arm, having his arm removed wasn't a big deal.

Those people were right about one thing: he did get a cybernetic arm. From the looks of it it's Cyborg's technology as well. That certainly makes story sense; the guys are good friends.

But as the solicitation says, "getting a prosthetic arm doesn’t make him whole again." The trauma of what happened to Roy Harper isn't merely physical. Such things never are. And though I'm still not sure they took the right direction (in fact, I think they probably didn't) that doesn't mean that they can't turn it into an interesting story. I really hope they do, even if I probably won't be reading it...

Poor old Roy. I LIKE Roy. And as an archer, your arms are fairly important, so even if you DO get a prosthetic, it's not going to be the same. Remember how Ollie prefered dying to being a one-armed archer?

I'm getting nervous about this whole rise and fall of the Green Arrow story.